This is what we know: The challenges facing Black Angelenos are deep and complex. This is what we don’t know: Why there are not more African American organizers in the field to address these challenges?

They probably first heard of him the same way they first heard of President Abraham Lincoln—as a preschool coloring project.
They never heard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. give a speech, they never saw him preach or lead a march. But L.A.’s young community activists—21st -century organizers standing up for exploited workers, for bullied gay teens and for children sickened by polluters too close to their daycare centers—are walking in the footsteps that Dr. King imprinted on the American conscience.

The panelists were Congresswoman Judy Chu of California's 32nd District; Anthony Thigpen, founder and president of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) now leading California Alliance; and Lenny Goldberg, Executive Director of the California Tax Reform Association. The audience was composed of several dozen of Liberty Hill's most committed donor-activists, a politically seasoned, skeptical group.